Composite structural member with nailing means



w. H. PORTZ 3,

COMPOSITE STRUCTURAL MEMBER WITH NAILING MEANS I Fild April 21, 1-967 INVENTOR. mzz/AM Poerz B2 ATTORNY Jam 7,

United States Patent 3,420,025 COMPOSITE STRUCTURAL MEMBER WITH NAILING MEANS William H. Portz, Calumet City, Ill., assignor to Stanray Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Apr. 21, 1967, Ser. No. 632,692

US. Cl. 52377 6 Claims Int. Cl. E04b 5/12; E04b 2/02 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A structural member comprised of a plurality of cooperating parts to provide nailable metallic planks for spanning an application to stringers or studs in building floors, walls, or the like, which planks have an element of yieldability to heavy forces applied thereagainst.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Field of invention Metallic floor and wall sections are not new. For example, see US. patents, Nos. 2,907,417, 3,132,605 and 2,442,459. In vehicle construction, particularly of walls and floors the effort heretofore has been to provide very rigid walls and floors so as to assist in holding the walls and floor in square. For example, in highway truck and railroad car construction walls, roof and floor are very rigid, a desirable quality in the event of train wreck or highway collision.

Description of the prior art This invention retains the rigid character of the walls and floors heretofore provided, but incorporates therein an element of resilience, which is highly desirable in situations where heavily loaded hand trucks are moved back and forth, for example, over a vehicle floor in loading the vehicle, and in the process accidentally bumping every now and then the vehicle walls.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention is a composite metallic structural member or panel having utility in a variety of situations, primarily as a floor or wall plank for railroad cars, highway trucks, or the like, and which may be laid transversely over and secured to the floor stringers or wall joists in making a complete floor or wall. The main supporting member of the panel is a corrugated plate having opposite facing channels. The surface member overlies the supporting member and has downturned end flanges overlapping the supporting member. Said flanges are longitudinally corrugated so that when mated with an adjacent surface member the meeting corrugated flanges form a tortuous path for a nail to traverse i securing strap anchor blocks or the like to the composite panel structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of several panels in side to side relation spanning stringers or joists in forming a floor or wall.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of a panel embodying the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the drawings indicates longitudinal spaced stringers or joists of a vehicle floor or wall and which extend from end to end or top to bottom thereof, representative of the framing of said vehicle. In this instance, I have shown such framing as being of I beams, although obviously they 3,420,025 Patented Jan. 7, 1969 could be channel, Z bars, or the like. Secured to these structural stringers or joists are a plurality of composite panels indicated generally at 12. The panels 12 are composed of a longitudinally corrugated support member indicated at 14, having oppositely facing channels, which support member rests upon and is secured to the said stringers or joists 10 in any acceptable manner. The sides of these corrugated support members, each consists of a downwardly extending flange 16 which is the outer flange of a downwardly facing channel 18 along each side of the member.

Upon this support member 14 and spanning the same both longitudinally and transversely is a surface sheet 20, the sides of which are provided with flanges 22 which overlap and are coextensive in width and length with the flanges 16. The flanges are provided with longitudinal corrugations as clearly indicated in FIGURE 2, and when these panel units are installed with the flanges of adjacent units abutting each other, they nest rather snugly against each other and form an entire floor or wall as the case may be These untis are fixed by welding or otherwise to the stringers or studs. In the case of a railroad car floor they are in thickness substantially the same as the common 2 inch wooden planking that is ordinarily used in car construction, so that between the doorways of the car the surface of the sheets 20 would be substantially in plane with the door thresholds, and thereby not interfere with ease of truck Wheel movements thereover. The opposite ends of the sheets 20 between doorways of a. railroad car, are secured to the door thresholds.

In the drawing, FIGURE 2 shows the sheets as being provided with shallow downwardly pressed corrugations 24 which are longitudinally disposed and located directly above each upwardly facing channel 26 of support member 14. These corrugations are pressed downwardly so as to provide some resilience to downward pressures in the area of said surface sheets 20 above the upwardly facing channels 26 of the support members.

The two members 14 and 20 snugly nesting one over the other are not secured to each other, but rather each is secured at the lower edge of the side flanges to the stringers or studs 10 where they pass thereover.

To provide blocking material to which the ends of banding straps may be nailed, I have shown a portion of a Wooden block 30 illustrated as being nailed by nail 32 extending through the block and forcing its way between the corrugated flanges 22 of adjacent sheets 20. The nail must bend as it is driven past the corrugations and thus a secure grip is provided for the nail in holding the blocking material.

From the foregoing it is believed one skilled in this art will understand the construction of these structural units utilizable in multiples to provide a floor or wall structure of widely varying dimensions. When secured to the stringers or joists and to the side sills or threshold plates, as above described, they collectively form a rigid floor or wall, holding the framing edges thereof in square and yet having an element of resiliency in the body portion of the units, of advantage in cases of severe pressures on said sheets whereby the side edges thereof will not tear loose for securement to the car.

I claim:

1. In a vehicle floor or wall construction having side sills and a plurality of spaced parallel stringers or studs, a composite structural member comprising a corrugated supporting member having alternate oppositely facing channels and downturned side marginal flanges resting upon said stringers or studs and secured along their lower edges thereto, and a surface sheet spanning said supporting member both longitudinally and transversely and having side flanges snugly overlapping said member flanges, and secured along their lower edges to said stringers or studs.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1 wherein said surface sheet is provided with an element of yieldability where it extends over an upwardly facing corrugation in said support sheet.

3. The structure set forth in claim 1 wherein the side flanges of said surface sheet are longitudinally corrugated.

4. The structure set forth in claim 1, wherein said construction comprises a plurality of said composite members in abutting relation.

5. The structure set forth in claim 3, wherein the meeting corrugated flanges of adjacent composite members forms a tortuous nail holding strip.

6. The structure set forth in claim 5 and blocking material nailed to said sheet by nails extending through said blocks and into said tortuous nail holding strip.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS 4/1938 Germany.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

A. C. PERHAM, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

